Vallas confident of success May 31, 2001 BY ROSALIND ROSSI AND FRAN SPIELMAN STAFF REPORTERS Chicago Schools CEO Paul Vallas insisted Wednesday he has the stuff to take the system to the next level, but said he'll decide next month if he wants to do so. Meanwhile, Mayor Daley stepped up his public support for Vallas, House Speaker Michael Madigan said he'd be hard to replace, and the president of the City Club of Chicago introduced Vallas as "an ideal candidate for governor." The public accolades came a day after Vallas seemed in the doghouse, winning only a lukewarm endorsement from the mayor, who said Tuesday that Vallas could "stay if he wants to" as CEO but no one is "irreplaceable." With School Board president Gery Chico's recent resignation announcement, and rumors mounting that Vallas might leave the nation's third-largest school system, Vallas' City Club address on the state of the schools produced a full house and as many TV cameras and reporters as former congressman Dan Rostenkowski's 1998 remarks there after his release from prison. "I haven't seen this many news cameras since my last press conference as U.S. attorney," quipped former U.S. Attorney Fred Foreman. City Club president Jay Doherty introduced Vallas as part of a team that created "a Chicago miracle." For his part, Vallas gave a one-hour summary of his six years as CEO and tried to soften the downturn in two of three key annual tests. Afterward, addressing a circle of TV cameras and reporters, Vallas was pounded with questions about his future. He said he would decide by the end of the regular school year June 12 whether to stay on as schools chief. "I told the mayor that I'll make a decision at the end of the [school] year, and he basically said the decision is mine to make," Vallas said. "No one is going to set a timetable for me." Vallas said new rumors about his possible gubernatorial bid might be rising because there's "not a dominant [Democratic] candidate," but he insisted "I'm not planning on running for anything." And despite recent public needling from Daley that the system needs to step up progress, Vallas said "I can take it to whatever level it needs to go. "If I had any doubts about my ability to take it to the next level, I would have left a long time ago. No one is going to have to tell me that I don't have it anymore. I'll know." Vallas said his relationship with the mayor has been "very cordial" and Daley has been "very honest" with him, so if the mayor wanted him to leave, he would have told him so by now. Earlier in the day, Daley agreed that Vallas was the "right man" to lead the system onward. Told there was a sense he had not given Vallas his full support, Daley said, "He's been saluted by me. Oh, my God. What am I supposed to do?" Madigan jumped to Vallas' defense Wednesday, saying: "I think he's done a very good job." -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
